Friday, August 8, 2014

2014 Mid-Carolina AHEC Summer Health Careers Program a Success

The Mid-Carolina AHEC Health
Careers Program, in partnership with River’s Edge Retreat, has formed the Young Future Leaders Program (YFLP) as a hands-on academic, mentorship and leadership program. This
enrichment program helped change the lives of over 30 student interns in
Richland and Lexington Counties this summer.

The first week of the program focused on academics including science, math, information technology
and health science. Students participated in hands-on case studies, mentoring,
and leadership workshops. Through the partnership with IT-ology (http://it-ology.org), students took a field trip to their facility
biweekly and learned how to develop website codes and create electrical
circuits. On Friday of the first week, students participated in a color code training led by Dr. Stanley Green from Clemson Youth Learning Center.

Students
put their mentoring skills to work during the second week and mentored a student in the “Grandparent
Program.” Mentors learned the need to assume a number of different roles during
the course of the mentoring relationship. Mentors explored values, interests
and goals of the mentee in order to make a difference and have a positive
effect on their life.

In the final week, students
became Young Future Leaders in Training, which was a "Counselor in Training" (CIT) program. The purpose of the CIT program is to provide an intense program geared
to train teenagers in work ethics, leadership, respect and responsibility. The
CIT program prepares the student to assist camp counselors by teaching
safety, responsibility, leadership, respect, and activities. This popular
program helps teenagers gain valuable leadership skills and increase
self-confidence.

The students also participated in three college
tours to the University of South Carolina (USC), USC Aiken, and Winthrop University
and also participated in the Adventures in Pharmacy Lab held through the USC School
of Pharmacy.

Mid-Carolina AHEC looks forward to holding the YFLP again next year. For more information on the program, please contact Mid-Carolina Health Careers Coordinator Erica Davis at 803-286-4121 or ericadavis@comporium.net.